How to format your references using the Frontiers in Neuroinformatics citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

PaperpileThe citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNoteFind the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and othersThe style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeXBibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author
Sapienza, C. (2007). Molecular biology. Do Watson and Crick motor from X to Z? Science 315, 46–47.
A journal article with 2 authors
Bayer, R., and Colgrove, J. (2002). Public health vs. civil liberties. Science 297, 1811.
A journal article with 3 authors
Ji, M., Odelius, M., and Gaffney, K. J. (2010). Large angular jump mechanism observed for hydrogen bond exchange in aqueous perchlorate solution. Science 328, 1003–1005.
A journal article with 7 or more authors
Bornemann, A., Norris, R. D., Friedrich, O., Beckmann, B., Schouten, S., Damsté, J. S. S., et al. (2008). Isotopic evidence for glaciation during the Cretaceous supergreenhouse. Science 319, 189–192.

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book
Nomura, S. (2016). Micromechanics with Mathematica. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
An edited book
Cornelius-White, J. H. D., Motschnig-Pitrik, R., and Lux, M. eds. (2013). Interdisciplinary Applications of the Person-Centered Approach. New York, NY: Springer.
A chapter in an edited book
Robert-McComb, J. J. (2008). “The Female Athlete Triad: Disordered Eating, Amenorrhea, and Osteoporosis,” in The Active Female: Health Issues Throughout The Lifespan, eds. J. J. Robert-McComb, R. Norman, and M. Zumwalt (Totowa, NJ: Humana Press), 81–92.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Frontiers in Neuroinformatics.

Blog post
Hale, T. (2015). Cassini Sends Back Stunning New Image Of Pandora And Mimas Orbiting Saturn. IFLScience. Available at: https://www.iflscience.com/space/newly-released-image-pandora-and-mimas-orbiting-saturn/ (Accessed October 30, 2018).

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report
Government Accountability Office (2008). Federal-Aid Highways: Increased Reliance on Contractors Can Pose Oversight Challenges for Federal and State Officials. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation
Brookman, D. (2009). Establishing context for referents in online chatroom conversations. Long Beach, CA: California State University, Long Beach.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article
Vecsey, G. (2010). Woods’s Downfall As Gripping As His Reign. New York Times, B13.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by name and year in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (Sapienza, 2007).
This sentence cites two references (Bayer and Colgrove, 2002; Sapienza, 2007).

Here are examples of in-text citations with multiple authors:

  • Two authors: (Bayer and Colgrove, 2002)
  • Three or more authors: (Bornemann et al., 2008)

About the journal

Full journal titleFrontiers in Neuroinformatics
AbbreviationFront. Neuroinform.
ISSN (online)1662-5196
ScopeComputer Science Applications
Biomedical Engineering
Neuroscience (miscellaneous)

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